Your favourite Masses
  • Thanks for asking! I’ve often tried to put together a top ten of this very question.

    Of course I love any of the Gregorian Masses (especially Mass VIII — normie, I know. But also IX and XI.)

    Then Palestrina — Missa Aeterna Christi Munera and Missa Brevis are Faves of mine.

    But aside from classic chant and Palestrina, here are some others.

    Latin:
    • Monteverdi: Massa a quattri voci (1641) [also, his posthumous one]
    • Gounod: Messe Chorale
    • William Lloyd Webber: Missa Princeps Pacem
    • Rheinberger: Mass in Eb for Double Choir
    • Ralph Vaughn Williams: Mass in G minor
    • Perosi: Missa Cerviana
    • Max Filke: Mass in G (in honor of St Charles Borromeo)
    • Liszt: Missa Choralis
    • Lotti: Mass in D major for 3 voices
    • Caldera/Zelenka: Missa “Providentiae” in D minor

    As far as English goes, I like Clark’s JP2 Mass, and any mass by Jeff Ostrowski.
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • @ServiamScores

    I seriously contemplated introducing this mass at our parish this year. Even sent it to the pastor so we could discuss it. At the moment, I haven't taken the plunge, but I really do love it.


    Go for it. It is a great Mass to sing, especially for the greater feasts.
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • RedPop4
    Posts: 51
    Speaking of George Malcom – I just recently discovered him (as a composer) and I really like his Neo-renaissance style. But it seems to me that it's not that much what he wrote and it's hard to find scores. Do they keep it in a safe in Westminster? Or was I just unable to find the publisher? Thanks for help.

    My director, just this morning, asked me to find Malcolm's Benedic Anima Mea and it's like hen's teeth.
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,238
    Flor Peeters, 2 of them: Mass in honor of St Joseph, and the Missa Laudis/St John the Baptist (not in print.)

    Both fine for standard parish choir.
  • RVW
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 12,043
    Louis Vierne - Messe Solennelle.
  • John Taverner - depending on what day it is -
    Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas
    or
    Missa Corona Spinea

    (On a very rare day - Stravinsky)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,271
    The Taverner "Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas" is one of my favourites, having sung it several times when I used to sing with Zephyrus (early music ensemble based in Virginia), including one performance at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington, D.C.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Orlande de Lassus Missa super "Bel 'armfitrit' altera"
    Stanford Communion in C (with Benedictus and Agnus Dei in F)
  • I really like Dvorak's Mass in D Major to listen to.
  • vansensei
    Posts: 223
    Victoria -- Missa O Quam Gloriosum
    Faure -- Requiem
    Schubert -- Mass in G
    Rheinberger -- Cantus Missae

    Frank Martin -- Mass For Double Choir if I had 11 people + myself on baritone
    Refice -- Missa Choralis (too many pre-V2 choir + organ Masses, a lot of them are meh, this is tolerable)

    Another pre-V2 20th-century Mass that's actually quite beautiful is the Tyberg Mass in F. There's a recording of it from the dearly departed South Dakota Chorale; very accessible work.
  • > Orlande de Lassus Missa super "Bel 'armfitrit' altera"

    Oh that's lovely, thanks. Lassus' writing for double choir is incredible. The Missa Vinum Bonum is a bit of a bucket list item of mine, but it's hard to find opportunities to sing that kind of thing.

    Palestrina's Missa Sanctorum Meritis is another good one if y'all are looking for more of his less performed works.

    My favorite will probably always be Dufay's Missa L'Homme Arme though. I feel like I appreciate it more every time I sing it.